Jos Verstappen has revealed that his son, Max Verstappen, was furious with the stewards’ decision when they awarded him a five-second time penalty for his lap 1 incident with Charles Leclerc. Off the start and into turn one, Verstappen dove down the inside of the Ferrari driver.
But he broke too deep and pushed the Monegasque out of the track as he claimed P1. Talking about this incident and the resultant penalty, Jos revealed to Viaplay (as quoted by GPBlog), “After the penalty, you could tell he wasn’t pleased about it, and I could see a bit from how he drove that he was angry.”
Since Verstappen not only pushed Leclerc wide into turn 1 but had all four wheels off the track himself while overtaking, the stewards had no choice but to penalize him. However, although the 26-year-old Dutchman was angry at the stewards’ call, Leclerc revealed that in the aftermath, the Red Bull driver realized his mistake and apologized.
“Yeah I already spoke with Max. He already told me sorry for the start”, said Leclerc. However, the Ferrari star does not believe that Verstappen’s penalty was drastic enough given how the race panned out.
Charles Leclerc not convinced by Max Verstappen’s penalty
Charles Leclerc admitted that it was fair to penalize Max Verstappen for the incident in turn one. However, the Monegasque believes that the nature of the penalty should have been harsher.
He said, as quoted by RaceFans.net, “I just think that in those kind of situations it would be better for the FIA to ask to give the place back because I think there’s quite a bit of an advantage to take care of tyres when you have free air.” Verstappen, however, did not seem to agree.
The Dutchman explained, “I don’t know what’s better at the end. I mean, I paid the penalty, right? So it doesn’t matter in a way, you know, like if you go back behind, you probably also end up losing whatever, five seconds. So it’s pretty similar, I guess at the end.”
